Category: Updates

Guys, I know this blog is supposed to be about so much more than what I defrost make for Meatless Mondays — and it will be — but this pseudo-vegetarian kick is one of the more visual life changes I’ve made recently.

Another day, another lucky chance that I ate salad for lunch and can count this towards my infinite and indefinite goal. I wish I had taken a picture of that salad — romaine, edamame, mushrooms, dried cranberries, tortilla strips, and jicama. (Who knew that jicama was a vegetable?? All I do is win.)

Meatless Mondays, 5k training, and slow fast food are still in full effect. I’ve allowed myself the occasional helping of canned corned beef hash from the Korean deli b/c sometimes you just have “one of those mornings” but for the most part, mindful meals.

MOM’s operates about a dozen stores in the DMV area and maintains a pretty loyal base of “Whole Foods isn’t really organic” shoppers. Roomie L is on a paleo kick right now and was on the hunt for some grass-fed meat. To MOM’s we went.

My food shopping methodology lies somewhere between “Kim, you’ve got food at home” and “Ooo loose daikon radishes…I’m sure I could do something with those!” Naturally, MOM’s turned into an adventure the minute we hit the dried goods section, and I saw sliced dragon fruit. Up the aisles, down the aisles. Look over there. In the end, I landed on:

Guys, it finally happened. I watched Food, Inc., and now I’m going through the existential crisis that I knew would come.

Dang it.

I’m on the metro home after spending the last half hour at Whole Foods checking for cage-free labels and googling meatless meat brands.

The Haul: I ended up with (the safe bets) tilapia, tofu, veggie Thai, and (this one is new) Gardein Beefless Burger Sliders. Some white nectarines and dried fruit bars.

I have no idea if/how this is going to work, but I am the ultimate sucker when it comes to trying something new. (Hence the stacks of unused card-making supplies and a Capital Bikeshare fob hanging around here somewhere.)

To tie it all back to Daily Medal, fun fact. Countless athletes from Carl Lewis to Ronda Rousey have adopted plant-based, veggie, or even vegan diets, and they’ve won plenty of titles along the way. I won’t use the v-word yet, but Meatless Mondays, I can do.

Edit: These beefless sliders are bomb. And they took about two minutes to heat up in the pan. I might be the laziest cook on the planet, so clearly these are now staple.

I’m about six workouts deep into Couch-to-5K, seven months into 2015, two years removed from school, and one year behind on this blog. Was out living life, trekking out of some mental valleys and all that. Gotta say, though, 2015 has already been exponentially more awesome than 2014. Might be time to catch up, yeah?

We could talk about Michael Phelps’ drunk-driving suspension being up or #SerenaSlam. The bungled marketing of Boston 2024 to, you know, Boston. Or the 2018 FIFA World Cup Preliminary Draw.

All important topics, potentially touched on in future posts, but today is about the importance of taking time off.

Athletes do it all the time, for family or fun or fatigue – sometimes for fear. Maybe you’ve spent your life working to attain the unattainable, and you hit your mark at 23. What’s next? Rinse and repeat?

By no means am I saying I hit my mark at 23. But I did and do have a lot of fear about what’s next. And I had a lot of fatigue at the time I stopped posting. But just like Michael and Nastia and Misty-May, I’m hungry for more. I’m ready to give it one more go, and I hope you’re coming with.

It’s important to just kind of get away from your sport until you miss it. It’s about taking time to enjoy other aspects of life or learn new things. It helps rejuvenate.

Thirty pounds heavier and with a 2nd-place finish, the most-decorated Olympian in history returned to the world of competitive swimming this week, and you know what…

Twinsies!

It’s been almost a year since I published that last post. Such a crazy time, last June, and I honestly just had to step away from GTGM and regroup. Michael gets it. Anyway, in my retirement, I took a writing course, ghosted a bit, traveled for work (and pleasure—because few things are better than a laptop and a long train ride). At the end of the day, though, I too missed being in the water. Water being Latin for blog.

So last week found me at a Marriott Courtyard bar in Clarksville, TN. It was one of those desperate nights after a successful work event when you’re too wiped to go to a real place, but you still need to process every great and horrible thing that happened that day. And you want to do it together.

Full disclosure: I met the First Lady of the United States that day. Honest to goodness, she tried to set me up on a date. It was wonderful and strange, but perhaps the strangest thing was that this was nowhere near the highlight of my day.

Back to the hotel bar. We had been joined in our turn down by our event partners, but after an hour or two, our internal crew was the last team standing. I ended up sitting next to my boss once removed, spinning in circles on my stool while he ate bar fries and someone else’s cold burger. (If you only knew the kind of month we’d had.) The highlight was the conversation we fell into, about our pasts and futures, disappointments and North Stars.

Here was a guy who knew exactly what he wanted. He knew exactly what got him out of bed, into Brown and Princeton, shipped out to Afghanistan, and on the rise in DC. And he had known since high school. And then there was me—legs up, spinning around in teal Keds and an afro, trying to figure out how I had even ended up in Tennessee with FLOTUS let alone where I was headed next. Nowhere near being a Foreign Service Officer or a professional Olympics enthusiast (totally a thing).

I’m all about exploring options, but there is nothing like leaving school to make you feel like an aimless drifter, Ponyboy. Falling into miracles and stumbling through the awful. If you know me at all, then you know that I’m a striver. In work, play, and love, I’m so achievement-oriented it’s ridiculous. Maybe that’s why I love the Olympics so much? A lifetime of training punctuated by two week blips of execution and glory. Yeah, that might just be it.

Even now, with my internship long gone from the rearview and no repeat encounters in sight, the Games are still my North Star. And I guess this blog is my compass. And I guess the adventure continues…

Greetings from the other side, peeps! Yes, you may now refer to me as Mistress of Global Communication or you know, whatever’s clever. Graduation Day take two, and the start of a new phase. Once again God is laughing at my plans, but I’ve long since learned to laugh with Him. Good exercise for the belly just in time for summer.

To explain, I guess I assumed the other side of graduation would be filled with television, non-academic reading, revisited hobbies, and writing. And when I say writing, I mean an over-promised and under-delivered continuation of the plucky little blog that could.

Well, turns out there’s no cable jack in my room; I’m exhibiting commitment issues with my books of choice; and I have yet to hop on that train all the way to Joy of Motion Dance Studio in Friendship Heights. No, instead I’m still Hulu-ing the hours away, developing an unhealthy interest in Broadway off-Broadway, and seriously thinking about buying a road bike. I’ve been on hiatus from the blog about a month too long, and as for the Games? Well I still love them. Always will. But there’s been a shift, and like all truly life-altering moments, it all started with a tweet.

A couple weeks ago I was lying in bed scrolling through my TL when I saw it: “New Asst. Manager Communications position open with U.S. Paralympics.” O_O!!! This was it! The dream job for which I was semi-qualified for was finally open!!!

I. Went. Nuts.

I favorited the tweet. I called my parents. I started mentally annotating the job description in my head. (Still in bed at this point, mind you.) Then I remembered, “Hey, wait a second…I have a job. I do? Yes! I do. I have a job. One that I like a lot! Right.”

Was I really ready to uproot my life and say peace to the team I’d come to love? Was I ready to break my word to my amazing boss (like really, who says that!) and leave before a year? And suddenly, not 15 minutes out from opening my eyes that morning, I was faced with one of those life dilemmas where you have to decide the type of person you’re going to be in this world. And I’ll be darned if I wasn’t still in bed about to be late for work.

Long story short, it took about two minutes to decide to stay put, but I had a longer conversation with my mom later on that evening about it. I said, “Mom, now just isn’t the time. I know I’m supposed to be here. And I love it. But my dream is still the Games. That’s been the dream for so long, and I just got swept up.” You know what she said?

“But Kimmie, you already had it.”

Clearly, I have been remiss. As she explained her words, though, I found myself agreeing. I had lived my dream. This past summer at the training center. That was it. I wanted to work for the USOC. Check. I wanted to go to the Games again. Check. I wanted to be a part of it all. Check.

Peeps, I love the Games, and I always will, but I think it’s time for me to mark this mission accomplished and move on to some new goals. So yea, fifty posts and I’m out! I’ve decided it’s time for me to close this chapter of my life and start drafting a new dream. Is it too late to be an astronaut??

11/24/13: Guys, I’ve had more than a few hints and some deep thoughts about picking this blog back up. After all, it’s familiar and comfortable and Sochi is just around the corner. Taking a break from Good Times and Gold Medals has been challenging, but it’s given me time to revisit forgotten projects and dream some new dreams for my writing. For updates on all things Games, definitely check out Around the Rings. For all things Kim, follow me on Twitter @superkimtendo and stay tuned!